Invisible Barriers
by Nobody Apologist
Summary: Tired of fighting the same dragon every week, Ventus immediately sets out on a quest to fight a dragon that seems to possess some form of intelligence. Prince Vanitas is, of course, aiming to make this as difficult of a task as possible.


Ventus had promised his parents a lot of things. Stopping one of his brothers from killing the other on a practice field hadn't been one, but he supposed that could be included in the promise of keeping them as safe as he possibly could.

"Just because the Commanders are willing to overlook you stealing half of the sweets in the kitchen doesn't mean they'll be willing to overlook you killing another soldier."

Roxas snorted. "You'd be surprised how desperate they are to keep me around."

Sora, still on the ground thanks to his twin knocking him over mere seconds ago, took this chance to swipe at Roxas' legs with his practice sword. The blond twin happened to notice the movement out of the corner of his eye, and trapped his brother's sword between the wooden planks of his own. He used his two swords to twist Sora's out of the boy's grip, and then flung it across the field.

Sora pouted up at him as he dropped his wooden shield onto the damp ground below.

"Cheater."

"Technically, you were the one who tried to attack him when his guard was down," Ventus called out from where he sat on one of the platforms strewn about the field. "So that makes you the cheater by practice fight rules."

"Don't the rules also say that both opponents have to be equally equipped?" Sora asked.

"You were also the one who said that you could beat me in a fight no matter the circumstances," Roxas replied before he bent down to retrieve the shield from the mud. Sora grabbed his arm and pulled him down, which caused him to land face first on the wet ground.

Sora's laughter soon turned into a scream as Roxas got up and returned the favour by shoving the brunette into the mud. The two soon began to roll around and wrestle with each other, their clothes growing even filthier by the second.

Ventus jumped down from the platform and walked over to retrieve the abandoned practice weapons without a fear of being pulled into the muddy fight. He and Roxas bonded through books, he and Sora bonded through food, and the twins bonded through fighting. Ventus never really pretended to understand it, but - since neither of them had killed each other yet - he didn't see the point in breaking up every single fight the two had. It was the only promise he'd made to his mother that he'd ever broken.

After tossing the weapons in the shed, he turned back to his brothers only to find them standing right behind him with mud dripping from their hands.

"No."

His monotone protests were in vain since his younger brothers would have dumped the mud on him even if he had pleaded in tears for them to keep their wet, dirty hands to themselves.

"You both suck," he told them.

Sora laughed at him, and nearly fell back into the mud beneath them when he tried to take a step. This caused Roxas laugh, which led to Sora shoving him, and in mere seconds the two were back to fighting on the ground.

Ventus shook his head at the two, and made his way over to the back door of the sleeping quarters, shaking as much of the mud out of his hair as he could on the the way there. He opened the door to find Xion on the other side.

"What happened to you?"

Ventus smiled, and nodded towards the scene behind him. "Those two are dead set on making me the third little pig."

Xion giggled. "I'd take it as a compliment then. The third one is the smart one, after all."

"The third one also wants to clean up. Can you make sure those two eventually do the same?"

"You may be asking too much of me," she replied as she slipped out the door.

"Nah, they actually listen to you."

Xion was still a fairly new recruit, since one was considered new until someone actually new joined up, but she already had both Roxas and Sora wrapped around her little finger. Ventus really wasn't sure how she did it, but she always managed to get the two boys to listen to her. At first he'd thought it had been out of admiration for the fact that she was one of three female soldiers, but they only did half of what Aqua told them to do, and they never listened to a word Larxene said. Ventus had soon resigned himself to the fate of never knowing just how Xion managed to control the two, but was extremely thankful for her mysterious talent nonetheless.

After finding a somewhat clean shirt, Ventus began to make his way towards the bathing area. He stopped in front of the signboard that hung across the hall from the bathing room doors at the sight of a new sheet of paper pinned to it. It really shouldn't have surprised him considering that one of Xion's duties was to update the various boards that hung around the Knight's Residency and Training Ground, but the sight of a new mission being posted after weeks of having the same ones hanging there was a bit shocking.

He sighed once he finished reading about how yet another dragon had been causing trouble up in the mountains. Sure, fighting the beasts had been absolutely exhilarating the first twenty times he'd done it, but it had grown to be a tiresome task as the diversity between the dragons had faded away and one species began to take over. It had soon turned into a chore when it essentially became killing the same dragon ten times a week.

Ventus only noticed the note at the bottom of the page upon his second read through that stated the creature was part of an unknown species of dragon that, based on the encounter between it and some of the knights the day before, seemed to posses even more intelligence than the average dragon. It had avoided both the bait and the trap set for it after quickly glancing around the area.

Ventus tore the sheet of off the board, placed it in his pants' pocket, and turned to enter the room across the hall.

* * *

><p>Ventus marched up the path that had been crudely carved into the mountain just outside of the kingdom armed with something he hadn't used in months: a strategy.<p>

Greenhorns all fell for the same tricks, and the rare Redbellies would often give up fighting after being whacked with a sword a few times, so planning ahead hadn't been much of an issue. But since he was dealing with a type of dragon that no one had fought before, Ventus had decided to take a page out of both Aqua and Commander Saix's books and plan ahead.

Ventus was hoping to run into the dragon, fight it for as long as he could, survive, and then return to the Residency and plot out how to best attack the monster again after observing how it fought back.

Roxas had been terrified by his optimism.

The cave where the dragon was last spotted came into view and broke Ventus out of his thoughts. He slowly walked towards the mouth of the cave, trying to mask the sound of his footsteps. He knew it was foolish - what with dragons having sensitive ears and other heightened senses - but it was more of a comfort to him. It made him feel like he was in control in a situation where he usually wasn't.

"Hate to break it to you, but you just missed the dragon."

Ventus jumped at the sound of the voice echoing from inside the cave, and took a few steps back.

"Who's there?"

A young man peeled away from the shadows, and came to stand at the entrance to the cave. His black hair was just as unruly as Sora's was, if not more, and it nearly blended in with the darkness behind him. His incredibly uncomfortable looking clothes were skin tight, and his feet were bare. He held his chin high and seemed to be trying to look down at Ventus (which, thanks to their similar heights, was a difficult task). The blond found himself thinking that if eyes could smirk they'd look exactly the way the other boy's gold colored ones did.

"A prince."

Ventus tilted his head before saying, "I've never heard of a dragon kidnapping a prince before."

The black haired man smirked. "Well, we don't usually brag about the fact that we can get carried off just as easily as princesses can."

"Fair enough." Ventus debated whether or not he should address the man before him with royal terms, but, after taking a good luck at him, Ventus decided that the prince didn't really seem to need an ego boost. "I'm assuming you can't just leave the cave, since it left you alone here."

The prince gave a small wave with his hand before placing it in the air before him. He pushed his hand forward, but was met with an invisible barrier that was given away by the ripple in the air that the prince's hand had created when he pushed against it.

"You're after a very talented dragon, you know."

Ventus chose to ignore the proud tone of the other man's voice. He'd dealt with enough royalty to know that the majority of them sounded as if they were boasting about themselves no matter what they were actually talking about.

"Does the wall completely disappear when the dragon returns?"

"Just long enough for him to swoop in." He paused and pointed at Ventus. "Just because I've been captured by a dragon doesn't mean I've been sitting around and waiting to be rescued like all of those pesky princesses do. I _have_ tried to leave. The dragon's just too quick and powerful."

"Not all princesses just wait to be rescued," Ventus argued, Sora's many tales of Princess Kairi ringing in his ears.

The black haired man laughed. "All the ones I've met have. And, considering who I am, I've met many, many princesses."

"Do you have any idea when the dragon might return?" Ventus questioned. He let some of his annoyance slip into his tone, but refrained from showing it physically. While the man in front of him was getting increasingly irritating he was still royalty, and royalty usually didn't take too kindly to people being annoyed by them.

This prince, however, began to look even more smug. "He left nearly an hour ago. Judging by his patterns - at least, the ones I've observed - he probably won't be back before this time tomorrow." He gave a short laugh after seeing the confusion on Ventus' face. "He alternates between long and short hunts, and you just happened to arrive after he left for a long one."

"Then I'll be back tomorrow." Ventus tried to look further into the cave, but the sun had traveled to the other side of the mountain so everything was bathed in shadows. "Will the spell on the entrance break if he dies?"

"Most likely," the dark haired prince replied. He crossed his arms. "Killing him won't be easy though."

Ventus smiled. "Never thought it would be, Prince…"

"Vanitas."

Ventus nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow then, Prince Vanitas."

The blond knight turned to walk away, but stopped at the sound of Vanitas' voice.

"Well, you can't just leave without telling me your name," he protested. Ventus turned to see that the prince was smirking again. "That's not very knightly of you."

"Ventus."

Vanitas' expression dimmed for a split second before his cockiness returned to his face.

"I look forward to your return, Sir Ventus."

Vanitas turned and was welcomed back into the shadows of the cave.

* * *

><p>The Record Room was a different kind of chaotic than the rest of the Residency. The only noise that passed between the shelves were the mutterings of the Head Record Keeper, information exchanges between him and the other Record Keepers, or conversations from anyone who visited. It wasn't chaotic in the sense that it was messy either, as Zexion had organized every single file in the room after accepting the position of Head Record Keeper. But no matter how meticulously Zexion had organized the files, one could (and often would) spend hours trying to find one piece of information; there were files from the creation of the Residency, over two hundred years ago, mixed in with files from the week before. The room was bursting at the seams with information.<p>

Ventus announced his arrival upon entering, and waited to hear Zexion acknowledge his presence before going any further. The slate haired man rarely ever stayed at the front of the room, and would wander through the shelves instead. He'd taken to insisting that anyone who entered had to call out to him and await his response after being frightened multiple times a day by running into people he hadn't known were in the room. Most of the soldiers and other Record Keepers humored him. He'd long grown used to the ones who didn't.

"Go ahead."

Ventus quickly made his way over to the Missing Royalty section, and began to search through the Vs. After finding nothing that looked like it could be how Vanitas was spelled, Ventus moved over to the As section. It wasn't unusual for royalty to lie about their names; some assassins could make very convincing knights.

He'd finally arrived at the Bs section after looking through all of the physical descriptions in the As section when the door slammed open.

"Demyx, I have told you countless times to not slam that door open or closed," Zexion yelled from somewhere to Ventus' left. If he had to guess, the Head Record Keeper was probably in the Financial Records section.

"But it's my signature thing! I can't just start opening it super quietly now!"

"If you'd listened to me earlier then we wouldn't have that problem now, would we?"

"It was my signature thing then too!" Demyx protested. "Honestly, we've talked about this before."

"And got nowhere every single time."

"Just like we're doing now. See? It's a tradition, and you know how people around here feel about tradition." Demyx rounded the corner. "Oh, hey Ven! What're you doing here?"

Zexion muttered what sounded like a curse.

Demyx laughed. "You thought he was Roxas again, didn't you?"

"Looking for something on a missing prince," Ventus said, sparing Zexion from any further embarrassment. "He said his name was Vanitas, but there's nothing here under that name."

Demyx raised an eyebrow. "Missing prince, huh? Can't I say I hear that one every day." Demyx turned towards the shelf and placed a folder in the N section. "Xion's gone to try and rescue Namine," he announced.

"By herself?" Ventus asked.

Demyx laughed. "Yup. Roxas wanted to go as back up, but she wasn't having any of that. Sora and Riku tried to follow her, but Axel stopped them from going. He said something about how she's gotta do this by herself."

"Figures," Zexion replied.

Ventus turned to see that the man had joined them, but that he stayed at the other end of the aisle. Demyx walked over to him and handed him another file.

"Receipts from various armour repairs. Terra says these ones are all paid though."

"At least some people pay on time," Zexion muttered. He turned and made his way back to the Financial section.

"Good luck with finding your prince," Demyx said before he swept out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Ventus quietly laughed at the exasperated sigh that followed.

* * *

><p>Ventus wasn't surprised by the lack of a dragon when he arrived at the cave. He'd actually been expecting it this time.<p>

"Hey!" he called into the cave.

"You don't have to yell," Vanitas snapped. He rubbed his right ear as he slipped out of the shadows like he had the day before and walked to the mouth of the cave. He crossed his arms and glared at Ventus. "What?"

"Yesterday, my original plan was to come here, fight the dragon for a bit, get some information on how it fought, retreat, and then come back with a strategy," Ventus explained. He crossed his arms, unconsciously mirroring Vanitas. "Instead, I get you telling me the dragon's off somewhere and that you're a prince who's being held captive by it. So on my way home I decided that I'd try and find out who you were, since I wasn't going to learn much about the dragon. Turns out there's no record of a Prince Vanitas from any kingdom, but I honestly didn't find that too suspicious; royalty lies all the time. So I went through records of other missing royals, and nothing matched up with you."

Vanitas' irritated expression had grown into a proud one as Ventus' story progressed. He still had his arms crossed, but the tension in his shoulders had vanished. "So?"

"_So_, I decided to march back up here and get some actual answers out of you."

Vanitas shrugged, looking all too pleased with himself. "You may not like them."

"Look me dead in the face and tell me that you give a shit about what I like or don't like."

Vanitas shrugged again. "Got me there."

"Well, at least I've got you somewhere," Ventus muttered. "First of all, is your name actually Vanitas?"

The black haired boy nodded. "That is one of the two true things I told you."

"Are you actually a prince?"

"There's number two."

Ventus gave the other man a suspicious look. "What kingdom are you from then?"

"The Kingdom of Twilight."

Ventus shook his head. "The current king of Twilight has no son. The only missing royalty from Twilight is the princess, Namine."

"I never said I was Twilight royalty," Vanitas argued. "I was simply born there."

"What are you prince of then?"

Vanitas shook his head. "Judging by the way this is going so far, you'll get to that answer after a few more questions."

"Fine. Whatever. Are you actually a captive?"

Vanitas laughed. "If you want to get all poetic about it, sure. On a literal level, no, I'm not. I didn't end up here out of my own free will, but I'm not a prisoner."

"Was the dragon actually gone yesterday?"

"Nope. He was here the entire time."

"So you were protecting him?"

Vanitas laughed again. "You could say that."

"Why?"

"You were getting close with your original questions; go back to those."

Ventus' hands clenched into fists. "Why did you lie yesterday?"

"Is that it?" Vanitas raised an eyebrow as Ventus nodded. "Well that's disappointing. I didn't think I'd have to spell it out for you."

He turned and walked back into the cave. Ventus opened his mouth to call out to him, but Vanitas stopped and looked over his shoulder.

"Are you coming or what?"

Against his better judgement, Ventus walked to the entrance of the cave. He took a tentative step past where the invisible wall had been yesterday, and an even more cautious step after that. Vanitas waved the way he had the day before, and Ventus noticed a small drop in volume from the noises outside. He turned around, and took a step only to bump into what he could only assume was the invisible wall.

"Damn it."

Vanitas' cackling echoed off of the cave walls. Ventus turned around to see that the other man had miraculously changed clothes. Both the shirt and the pants were still skin tight, but Ventus could no longer tell where the shirt ended and the pants began. The cape, if it could be called that, looked unlike every other cape Ventus had seen. The ends of it were tied to Vanitas' wrists so that the leather looking fabric hung between his arms and torso. It also spilled down his back and the end of it looked as if it were made from scales. There were also two horns attached to a circlet resting on his head, although Ventus had thought the horns were simply tufts of hair that he hadn't noticed before.

"Well?" Vanitas asked with an expectant look on his face.

Ventus thought over the answers his questions had received. "You're a sorcerer with a pet dragon?" he guessed.

Vanitas guffawed. He braced his hand against the wall and bent over his stomach, which he held onto with his other hand. Ventus crossed his arms and leaned against the barrier behind him, unsure of what to do. Vanitas eventually straightened up, wiping his eyes with the hand that wasn't against the wall.

"Can't say I've heard that one before," Vanitas told him, hints of laughter still in his voice.

"Thank you, I'll be here all week," Ventus deadpanned.

"At this rate you probably will be." Vanitas marched further into the cave. "Come on, oh brilliant knight. I've got something to show you."

Ventus sighed, looked over his shoulder at the world outside the cave, and then followed behind the supposed prince. If he hadn't regretted talking to Vanitas the moment he'd stepped into the cave, then he was certainly regretting it now.

The two of them soon arrived in a room much larger than the entrance. There were two entry ways on the other side of the room; one took up most of the wall while the other was the size of the doors back in the Residency. The room was empty save for a few scattered rocks.

Vanitas went to stand in the middle of the room while Ventus leaned against the wall next to the entryway they'd just walked through. Vanitas put his hands on his hips and a smirk on his face.

"Turn around and close your eyes. The big surprise can't be spoiled now, can it?"

Ventus rolled his eyes, but did as he was told. He tapped into his rapidly decreasing optimism and reasoned that if he didn't fight back too much he'd probably be able to leave before the sun set.

He heard what sounded like Vanitas choking on something behind him and took a breath in order to ask if he was okay, but decided that he was better off ignoring it. Considering all the lies he'd been told, Ventus really shouldn't have been concerned at all.

"Surprise."

Ventus turned around and immediately braced himself against the wall. A black dragon sat in the middle of the room. The tips of its horns brushed the ceiling, while its tail dragged along the floor. Unlike Greenhorns, this dragon's tail didn't have a spike on the end; it instead looked more like the end of a snake. The claws were longer than any Redbelly claws he'd ever seen, and were silver in colour, like the Bluefires that used to populate the area.

The dragon raised one of its paws and made a waving motion in the direction of the doorway Ventus had entered through. The blond knight didn't have to check to know that it was blocked off.

"You're taking it much better than I thought you would," the dragon told him, its voice filling the room. "No screaming, panicked sobbing, or anything."

"Knights don't scream," Ventus protested, his voice squeaking.

The dragon chuckled. "Tell that to the other ones I've run into. They were screaming before I actually switched forms."

Ventus cleared his throat. "So...you are Vanitas, right?"

"No. I ate him two seconds before you turned around."

Ventus raised an eyebrow.

The dragon exhaled through its nose, blowing smoke into the room. It lowered its head and Ventus noticed the colour of its eyes for the first time.

"You're hopeless, aren't you?"

"What do you mean?" Ventus asked as he tried to avoid making eye contact. He took a closer look at the horns that looked like sharper, larger versions of the ones Vanitas had been wearing a few minutes ago.

"I've been dropping hints this whole time, and you refused to pick up on them." More smoke blew from Vanitas' nose, but this time it ended up in Ventus' face. Vanitas waited until Ventus stopped coughing before speaking again. "I don't know whether it's hilarious or exasperating."

"Neither of them sound good to me," Ventus replied, rubbing his eyes.

Vanitas' laughter sounded much more threatening now that he could possibly breathe fire on Ventus in the process.

"No, I bet they don't. On the other hand, hilarious sounds great to me, and you're amusing enough that I can keep you around for a while."

"How long is 'a while'?"

Vanitas straightened up, and lifted one of his feet off the floor along the way. He placed the claws under his chin as he looked down at Ventus. "I seem to recall you saying that you'd be here all week, so I think I'll hold you to that."

"That was -"

"A joke. Exactly." Vanitas nodded towards the smaller entryway behind him. "There's an actual bed in there, if you want it."

Ventus looked towards the doorway Vanitas had pointed out, and then turned to look at the one leading back to the mouth of the cave.

"Aw, come on. I'm being nice and offering you my room instead of forcing you to get acquainted with all the lonely rocks out here. Hell, I'm being so nice right now that I'm not even thinking about frying you to a crisp."

"Well now you are," Ventus replied.

"Fried blondes don't actually taste that great, so you don't even have to worry about that." Vanitas lowered his head to rest them on his two front feet again. "My generosity's only going to last for so long."

Ventus took a deep breath, nodded, and then began to slid along the wall as he made his way to the other side of the room. He and Vanitas watched each other the entire journey, the latter looking much more amused than the former. Just as he was about to turn away from the dragon, Vanitas spoke again.

"Leave the sword."

Ventus looked up at the dragon as if Vanitas had deeply offended him. He had in a way, Ventus supposed. He was asking Ventus to give up his last line of defense after all.

Vanitas rolled his eyes. "You'll get it back before you leave. Forgive me for not wanting to lose sleep over whether or not you'll come kill me in the middle of the night."

"What do you think _I'll_ be doing?"

"My cave, my rules."

Ventus made a disgruntled sound, but unhooked the sheath from his belt. It dropped to the ground, and he kicked it towards the dragon.

"Happy?"

Vanitas shook his head. "Not really. Pleased? Yes, very."

Ventus shook his head and retreated into what would be his room for the next few days.

* * *

><p>Roxas didn't start worrying until the sun dipped below the horizon.<p>

That wasn't entirely true. He'd been worried all day, if he were being honest. He'd been worried ever since Xion had gone off to fight her first dragon alone, and that worry had only increased at the sight of Ventus stomping off to the mountains soon after. After coaxing Ventus' destination out of Demyx, Roxas had only grown even more worried.

He couldn't help it, really. He found it much too easy to worry about people.

So when Ventus hadn't returned by sundown (Xion would be away for at least another three days), Roxas' worrying had reached its peak. If it hadn't by that point, then it would have the minute Sora had begun to express his worry for their older brother.

The twins had split up after eating dinner to go in search of anyone who might have seen their brother. It wouldn't have been the first time that Ventus had slipped back into the Residency without his brothers' knowledge and sent them both into a fit of panic. It wouldn't have been the first time any of them had done it, really.

Roxas immediately went to the Record Room with the knowledge that his brother had visited the room the night before.

"I'm here."

"You should check in with your brothers, if you haven't; they were both worried about you."

"It's Roxas."

"Fuck."

Roxas followed the sound of Demyx's laughter to the Missing Royals section where both the Record Keepers were.

"I take it he hasn't snuck in here before letting us know he was back then?"

Demyx shook his head. "No sign of him in here."

Roxas sighed. "Do you have any idea why he seemed so angry before he left?"

"He was looking for a file on someone in here last night," Zexion stated as he switched the placement of two files. "Made a right mess of it too."

"Who was it?"

Demyx shrugged. "Some guy named...Vanitas, I think?"

"Vanitas?" Roxas couldn't remember hearing the name before.

"There's no Vanitas in our files," Zexion said.

"Ven probably figured the name was a lie. Royals and their name games, you know?" Demyx scratched his head. "Either way, he was looking through the B files when I got here."

"Do you think he found anything?" Roxas asked.

Zexion forced a thick file in between two smaller ones before answering. "Considering the way he stomped out of the room last night, I doubt it."

Roxas released an exasperated breath. "Well, let me know if Ven passes through any time soon."

Demyx saluted. "Will do, Roxy."

Roxas left the two to complain about the mess his brother had made of the files the night before and to laugh in response to every insult that fell from the other's mouth.

He managed to run into a few other people who might have known of Ventus' whereabouts. Aqua had looked just as worried as Roxas did and told him every single thing Ventus had said to her in the past three days. Hayner had claimed that he'd heard Ventus muttering about liars with black hair that morning, and Luxord thought it was important to mention that Ventus had refused a card reading before leaving.

Roxas leaned against the wall in the hallway leading to the door that connected the main building to the sleeping quarters, and closed his eyes. Ventus was going to get an earful when he got home.

"Still no news on Ven?"

Roxas opened his eyes to see that he'd been joined by Axel, who was leaning on the wall opposite of him.

"None. Demyx mentioned something about someone called Vanitas being involved, but that's the only lead I could get." He sighed. A nervous habit that he could, frankly, do without. "Not that much of a lead though."

"Here's hoping he's just talking this guy back to his family who lives far away then," Axel replied.

Roxas let a small smile slip onto his face. "If that's the case, I'll be forced to listen to all of the complaints he couldn't voice about his travel partner."

"Angel actually complains? Who would've thought?"

Roxas snorted. He hadn't heard any of their nicknames in a long time; not since the other soldiers had finally managed to sort out their actual names.

"He does it more than you'd think." The blonde looked down at his feet. "He'll be hearing plenty of complaints from me when he gets back though."

The two were silent for a moment. Axel pushed off of the wall and moved to stand in front of the blond.

"You want to go look for him tomorrow?"

Roxas looked up at his fighting partner.

"Can we?"

Axel nodded. "It won't look like you're overly worried by that point either." He looked away for a moment, and then snapped his fingers. "If he's not here by ten, we head out, okay?"

Roxas nodded eagerly. "Okay."

* * *

><p>Vanitas looked up from his incomplete map when he heard two sets of approaching footsteps. He let out an exasperated sigh before making his way out of his den.<p>

The den itself was only somewhat smaller than the empty room in between it and the entrance. There was a bed that resembled a giant bird nest tucked away in the corner that he could sleep on whenever he didn't feel the need to switch to human form. He'd moved the desk from the bedroom he used as a human into the den while Ventus had slept.

Vanitas hid in the shadows of the mouth of the cave as he tried to pick up on what the two were saying. Unfortunately, they talked just quietly enough for him to have trouble hearing them. The voices soon stopped, and one set of footsteps came towards the entrance of the cave. Vanitas peered out from behind the rock he'd been crouching behind, and immediately hid behind it again.

Ventus was outside the cave, and he had two swords with him.

Vanitas looked back at the entrance again, hoping that he was simply suffering from sleep deprivation. But no, the blonde knight still stood outside the cave with his two weapons clipped onto his belt. Vanitas renewed the barrier at the entrance before speaking.

"How the fuck did you get out?"

The blonde's hands snapped to the two hilts at his hips as he glared into the cave.

"Who's there?"

Vanitas rose from his crouch behind the rock, and marched over to the entrance.

"Don't play dumb with me," he growled. "How'd you get out, and where did you get the second sword?"

The blonde's eyes widened, and he took a step towards Vanitas. "You know Ven, don't you? Do you know if he's okay?"

Vanitas raised an eyebrow. "You're not Ventus?"

The Ventus look alike shook his head. "I'm one of his brothers. Is he okay?"

Vanitas stopped himself from sighing with relief. The idea of Ventus managing to break through his seals and somehow finding a second sword had been much more terrifying than he was willing to admit.

"He was sleeping last time I checked," he replied. "Either way, he's alive."

"Is he in there?"

Vanitas nodded. "He can't leave though."

"Why not?"

"The dragon's placed a barrier on the entrance." Vanitas demonstrated by pressing his hand against it. "We're both stuck here."

Ventus' brother sighed. "I take it you're Vanitas then?"

"He's talked about me?"

"Sort of. He was trying to find a file on you the night before yesterday."

Before Vanitas could think of something to say that wasn't too suspicious, he heard the sound of metal lightly tapping metal.

"The dragon's not here, Axel. Medium, moody, and average looking is though."

Vanitas raised an eyebrow at the name, but didn't say anything. A red headed knight soon joined the blonde in front of the cave with a shield on each arm.

"Can you go get Ventus?" the shorter soldier asked.

Vanitas shrugged, turned around, and walked back into the cave. He supposed letting Ventus talk to his brother wasn't that terrible of an idea. After all, he could stand in the background and make sure Ventus didn't say anything Vanitas didn't want him to.

"Hey," Vanitas called into the human bedroom. "Your twin wants to see you."

"Roxas may be a twin, but he definitely isn't mine," Ventus replied as he came out of the room.

"I'd hate to run into _his _twin then. You don't seem too surprised that he's here."

Ventus shrugged as he moved through the bare room. "He worries about me and Sora too much. I figured he'd come looking for me eventually."

Vanitas hung back in the shadows as Ventus continued on towards the cave's entrance. He heard the sigh of relief that came from Roxas and wondered if the kid ever stopped sighing.

"Are you okay? You didn't get mortally wounded, or sick did you? Did you actually fight the dragon or -"

"I'm fine, Roxas," Ventus answered. Vanitas got the feeling that Roxas wouldn't have stopped asking questions if his brother hadn't interrupted him. "And no, I didn't actually fight it."

"How'd you get stuck here then?"

Vanitas stretched out his hand in preparation.

"It's an embarrassing story that involves me being stuck here until Sunday."

"The fuck does that mean?"

"I agreed to complete these weird tasks that the dragon came up with, and if I complete them by Sunday then both me and prince of darkness back there go free."

Vanitas covered his mouth to muffle his laughter. He'd wanted to put a different excuse in Ventus' mouth, but he'd been too amazed by what the boy had come with to properly cast the spell. It was probably the least believable excuse he'd ever heard.

"I know this dragon's supposed to be different from others, but still…" Axel replied

Ventus laughed. "It caught me a bit off guard, to say the least."

Vanitas peeked out from behind the rock again. Axel looked as if he were contemplating the secrets of the universe, and Roxas seemed to be considering the fact that Ventus may have lost his mind.

"You're sure you're stuck here?" Roxas asked after a minute of silence.

Ventus pushed against the invisible barrier. "Positive."

"What happens if you don't complete these...tasks by Sunday?"

"Then I go home and Vanitas doesn't."

Vanitas ducked back behind the rock just as Roxas turned to look at him.

"Why'd you agree to it?"

Ventus shrugged. "I think Sora's hero complex might have rubbed off on me."

Axel laughed. "The kid does that to people."

Vanitas looked around the rock again, and nearly sighed in relief when he saw that Roxas was no longer looking at him. Instead, the blonde knight was looking pleadingly at his brother.

"You're sure you can leave on Sunday?"

"Yes."

Roxas slumped his shoulders. "I can come check on you throughout the week though, right?"

Ventus turned to look at Vanitas, which caused the other two to look at him as well. He shrugged before replying.

"As long as you gets those tasks done I don't care what you do."

Ventus turned back to Roxas. "That's a yes."

Roxas continued to glare at Vanitas for a few moments until Axel nudged him. He swallowed before looking at his brother.

"Do whatever you need to do then," Roxas told him. He then turned and walked away from the cave.

Axel waved at Ventus, said, "Don't wear yourself out, Angel," and then followed Roxas down the path.

Vanitas waited until he deemed the two to be far enough away.

"Angel?"

"The Residency made up nicknames for the three of us when we first joined up," Ventus explained to him without turning around. "I was Angel, Sora was Sunshine, and Roxas was Killer."

"He sure looked like one." Vanitas walked over and stood next to Ventus. "Thought the kid was going to rip me apart just by glaring at me."

Ventus didn't respond.

"Nice excuse, by the way," Vanitas told him.

"You think so?"

"No, but I definitely thought it was funny. What are these tasks I've set out for you anyway?"

Ventus shrugged. "One of them was to amuse you, and that one's apparently easier than breathing."

"Lucky you then." Vanitas moved to walk back into the cave, but stopped when he realized that Ventus hadn't followed him. The blonde still stood just behind the barrier, his breath lighting it up at intervals, with his eyes trained in the direction that his brother had walked off. "You worried about him?"

Ventus laughed quietly. "I'm his older brother; of course I'm worried."

"I don't think you need to be," Vanitas told him. "That kid could give me a run for my money when it comes to being threatening."

* * *

><p>Ventus didn't stay at the mouth of the cave for more than hour. He was pretty sure that Roxas was back home by then, and he could only hit the invisible barrier so many times before his hand started to hurt.<p>

He went back to the room Vanitas had scared him into the night before and resumed his former position of lying face down on the bed. The room was surprisingly bare; it contained only a bed and a wardrobe. There'd been a desk next to the doorway the night before, but Vanitas had taken it away in the middle of the night. Ventus was rather glad when he'd woken up completely to find that all of the crashing around that Vanitas had done the night before was simply the result of stealing his own desk and not an attempt to kill the knight in his sleep.

If he'd been trying to keep Ventus from reading through any of the documents that were on it then he'd failed miserably. Although, Ventus didn't really get much information out of the unfinished map of the mountains or a list of habits that various animals had while being hunted.

He dozed off at some point, and his newly opened eyes were met with a dimmed light. Vanitas seemed to have some kind of spell cast on the cave that acted as if the sun could reach the inner rock walls, and the lighting changed with the position of the sun as the world outside the cave did. Ventus assumed that the spell in question had been cast long ago since the cave had seemed much too bright when he'd walked in the day before.

Ventus also wondered about what Vanitas could possibly be the prince of. It was the one question he'd asked the day before that had been left unanswered. Unless Vanitas had been claiming to be the Prince of Dragons, but that would mean -

"Hey! Blondie! Get out here!"

Ventus didn't stray from his spot on the bed. "Why?"

"Apparently you being amusing isn't easier than breathing so I've decided to put you out of your misery."

"By letting me leave?"

"I'm afraid I used up too much of my limited generosity yesterday for me to do that," Vanitas replied.

Ventus took a deep breath before asking a question that he hoped would distract the murderous dragon outside. "You're the Prince of Dragons, aren't you?"

There was silence on the other end for a few moments. "I was wondering when you were going to bring that up."

Ventus sat up. "So you're connected to Xehanort then?"

"What do you know about the old man?" Vanitas asked. "A group of your people killed him, didn't they?"

"I don't know much. I was pretty low in the ranks when it happened, and I'd forgotten about it by the time I was respected enough to ask about it."

The two were momentarily silent again.

"Well?"

"What?"

"I asked you what you knew."

"Oh! Just that he was trying to introduce a hierarchy system to dragonkind, and was planning to go about it by creating human-dragon hybrids. I'm assuming he was a sorcerer of some kind since he was apparently extremely confident in his abilities."

"Is that all?"

"Well, he also claimed that he hadn't actually put the plan into action, aside from turning himself into one. But, if you're to be trusted at all..."

A chuckle came from the other room. "How rude of you. I'm simply sitting out here, waiting to set you on fire, and you're doubting my trustworthiness."

"Wouldn't you?"

"Obviously. Anyone with half a brain would." The bed and wardrobe both shook as Vanitas took a few steps and sat in front of the entryway. "I _am_ more trustworthy than Xehanort apparently."

"How so?"

Vanitas blew air out through his nose, and smoke shot into the room. "He 'put the plan into action', as you so eloquently put it. Me and twelve other kids had dragon blood poured into our veins by him years ago."

"Why'd you agree to it?" By this point, Ventus had drawn in his knees up to his chest in order to keep them out of the line of fire. He doubted Vanitas would scorch his own room, but the dragon seemed to try his hardest to be unpredictable.

He snickered. "Why do you think I _agreed_ to it? I was eight. Besides, even if I had agreed to it, what little boy wouldn't want to be a dragon?"

"All the ones I've met, myself included, were much more fond of the idea of _killing_ dragons."

"Those are some boring kids. Either way, I'm the only one out of them that's still around, which automatically makes me the prince. Although, I suppose since the old bastards dead, I ought to address myself as a king now."

"None of the dragons around here would recognize you as one."

"Hence why I'm not flying around, announcing my forced heritage to the world."

Ventus backed up and rested his back against the headboard. "Why are you the only one still alive?"

"My mother was a witch in every sense of the word. I had enough magic running through me so that the dragon blood didn't overpower me. The others only had magic blood in them from at least six generations back, so they were never able to switch between forms. They've all been killed off by various knights over the years."

"How long have you been in this kingdom?"

"A few weeks maybe? The wildlife here in Destiny's pretty tasty so I'm planning on sticking around for a while."

"Where were you before?"

"I was in Neverland for about two days, but the amount of screeching kids in that kingdom annoyed me too much. Before that I was on the outskirts of Olympus, until the famous Sir Hercules came after me."

Ventus heard the dragon outside retch before he could ask another question. He swung his legs off of the bed, and let his feet brush against the floor. Vanitas soon entered in his frankly ridiculous looking outfit.

"You've succeeded in distracting me to the point where I don't want to kill you anymore," he said. He crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "Congrats on buying yourself another day."

"Have I completed a task then?"

"Sure, oh valiant hero," Vanitas scoffed. "You can brag about it to your brother tomorrow."

The black haired boy swept out of the room, and left Ventus on his own for the rest of the night.

* * *

><p>The blonde knight awoke to the sound of both of his brothers calling out for him from the mouth of the cave. He dragged himself off the sinfully comfortable bed, and slipped through both of the small entryways. Halfway through the large middle room he realized there wasn't really much point to being quiet with the way Sora and Roxas were shouting. Vanitas was no doubt awake by now, if he'd ever gone to sleep.<p>

"I thought I taught you guys enough dragon fighting etiquette for you to know that you're supposed to be quiet."

"We saw it fly off just before we got here," Roxas called back.

Ventus paused in surprise that Vanitas had actually left. He shook his head, and continued towards the entrance. Vanitas was still a dragon, and, since fried knight wasn't on the menu, he'd have to get food somewhere else.

His brothers came into view, and a huge smile broke out on Sora's face.

"Ven!" He started to run to his older brother, but ended up running face first into the barrier and fell to the ground from the impact.

Ventus looked to Roxas. "You could have told him that was there."

Roxas shrugged. "Where's the fun in that? Besides, I thought he would've guessed something was there, or that he would at least ask why you couldn't escape."

"Speaking of which," Sora interjected before he jumped to his feet, "we've talked about this hero thing before Ven." The brunette shook his head, and put a hand on his chest. "_I'm _the big hero out of the three of us. You can't go and upset the order of things."

Ventus laughed. "It seemed like a good deal at the time. Especially since there aren't any princesses around to steal my dragon kill."

"Kairi didn't steal my dragon kill," Sora protested.

"No," Roxas replied. "She stole yours _and_ Riku's dragon kill."

"We weakened it a lot though." Sora's smile had turned into a pout as soon as the teasing had begun.

"Like how you weakened that Greenhorn before Riku killed it in one swipe?" Ventus asked.

"You can stop anytime, dragon maid."

"Speaking of your dragon," Roxas interrupted, "how many more tasks do you have to do?"

"I've got the long term one of making sure Prince of Mood Swings doesn't die of boredom while I'm here," Ventus told them. "But I completed a simpler one last night."

"Really?"

Ventus nodded. "And, considering I survived the night, I passed with flying colours."

"What did it make you do?" Sora asked. He had the look on his face that he always used to have whenever Ventus told him a story; wide eyes and a mouth that never shut all the way.

Ventus shrugged. "Nothing bad. It was...a test of intelligence, you could say. The only reason my life was in danger was because I'd irritated it soon after you left yesterday," he explained, nodding to Roxas.

"How'd you do that?" the younger twin asked.

"He ignored it most of the day. Dragons don't like being ignored."

Ventus turned to see Vanitas emerging from behind the rock he'd been hiding behind the day before. The imprisoned knight decided to ask Vanitas if there was another entrance to the cave or if the boy had teleported himself there once his brothers had left.

"Ven!" Sora's hand was back on his chest, and he had a scandalized expression on his face. "How could you let yourself get stuck in there with a haircut stealer?"

"Hate to break it to you, kid, but I couldn't steal something I didn't see until today," Vanitas replied as he made his way to stand next to Ventus. "I'm not that great of a thief."

"I've never heard of a prince being a thief," Roxas said. One of his milder glares was directed at Vanitas.

"Haven't been to Agrabah then, have you?" Vanitas crossed his arms over his normal looking shirt. "The prince there lived on the street before marrying into royalty, and his father was the leader of the most feared thief guild in the kingdom."

"What kingdom are you the prince of anyway?" Roxas asked. "There's no file on you down in the Residency."

"That's because I'm not actually a prince," Vanitas told him. The three brothers looked at him with varied expressions of confusion. "The dragon thinks I am though, and who am I to deny it that delusion?"

"A lying asshole for starters."

"Excuse me for trying to save my own skin. I doubt fire breath would be willing to keep some guy he mistook for royalty alive for more than a few seconds."

"Forgive me for not enjoying the fact that you've gotten Ven stuck in there with you."

"He walked into this cave on his own." Vanitas smirked. "You act as if I seduced him into it."

"You could've for all I know," Roxas replied. His hands rested next to the handles of both of his swords on his hips.

Ventus looked at Roxas with wide eyes and raised eyebrows while Sora almost fell over laughing.

"Oh, I would pay good money to see Ven getting seduced," Sora announced. "He didn't even notice that Olette was flirting with him a few weeks ago."

"She thought I was Roxas; it doesn't count," Ventus protested.

"That first princess you saved flirted with you too," Sora retorted, "and you didn't notice it then either."

"I'd just killed a dragon! I thought she was complimenting me as a way of thanking me."

"Congrats on living up to the Angel nickname," Vanitas told Ventus with a smirk on his face.

"How do you know about that?" Roxas demanded. He seemed to be growing more irritated by the second.

"Your boyfriend let it slip yesterday, and I wasn't about to let it go unexplained, Killer."

Roxas' scowl deepened, and his hands clenched into fists. Sora stepped in front of his twin.

"Well, it's good to see that you're doing fine, Ven," he said. "I think I'll drag this one down the hill, and we'll leave you to do these mysterious tasks of yours."

Ventus nodded. "You'll be back tomorrow?"

Sora nodded. "Definitely." He turned to Vanitas. "Nice meeting you, Vani."

The brunette grabbed his twin's wrist and pulled the still scowling blonde back towards the trail. Vanitas waited until the two were out of sight before turning to Ventus.

"Vani?"

"Sora will shorten any name longer than two syllables," Ventus explained. "Vani's not that bad compared to some of the others he comes up with. Zexion refuses to let Sora call him by name." Ventus began to walk further into the cave. "Where's the other cave entrance, by the way?"

"How'd you know about that?" Vanitas asked, following behind the knight. "I assume you didn't find it since you're asking where it is."

"Those two claimed to have seen you fly off before they got here. So you've either got another way in and out, or you transported yourself with magic."

"You put too much faith in my magic abilities," Vanitas told him as they arrived in the empty room. "The other entrance is in the den, and it also has a barrier on it."

"I should have just looked for it instead of asking," Ventus mumbled.

"I already had one up in case you wandered in there, but I had my doubts that you would. You don't strike me as the wandering-into-someone's-room-without-permission type."

Ventus shrugged. "It's the polite thing to do." He turned away from the black haired boy and walked towards the smaller entryway across the room.

"Oh no you don't," Vanitas called out to him.

Ventus stopped and turned back to Vanitas. "Why not?"

"I may have lied more in that one conversation than I have through most of my life, but if there was one honest thing I told your brothers it was that dragons don't like being ignored."

"So?"

Vanitas gave an exasperated sigh. "_So_, you are going to stay out here and talk to me. That's your 'task'," Vanitas made quotation mark gestures with his hands, "for the day. I'm keeping you around for you to entertain me, and you sleeping the day away in my bedroom isn't really that exhilarating to watch."

"What am I supposed to talk about then?"

Vanitas threw his hands in the air. "I don't know. How many dragons you've killed; whether or not your brother is going to remove my head from my shoulders with both of his swords or if he'll deem my death unworthy of that and only use one; what you had for breakfast before coming here. I don't really care what so long as you actually speak to me."

Ventus didn't respond right away, and crossed his arms before speaking. "Speaking of breakfast from two days ago, I haven't eaten since then."

"And what do you expect me to do about it? Be a doting dragon husband and go hunt down some food for you?"

"A doting dragon husband is probably the last thing I want." Ventus seemed to think about it for a moment. "Aside from dying of starvation."

Vanitas groaned. "Fine. I'll go get food for you. But you better have your fucking life story ready by the time I get back."

* * *

><p>Ventus nearly cried at the sight of cooked food. Vanitas had no doubt stolen the meal from one of the restaurants down in the capital, but morals weren't at the forefront of Ventus' mind when the scent of the food reached his nose.<p>

Vanitas also had an empty glass with him. Ventus chose to tear into the food instead of asking what it was for, and the dragon marched off into his den with the glass soon after. The blonde knight was nearly finished eating when Vanitas returned with the now water filled glass, and water drenched clothes.

"I had to scoop a fish out of that, and it was a lot harder than you'd think," Vanitas told him. He handed the knight the glass, and then waved his hand over himself. His clothes dried instantly.

Ventus didn't say a word until he'd finished gulping down both the food and the water. "Thank you," he eventually told Vanitas, who had sat down next to him soon after giving him the water.

"I couldn't just let my entertainment starve. It would have been a bit counterproductive." Vanitas laughed. "Besides, if you actually died then I'm sure that barrier would be useless against your brothers and I'd die soon after."

"Always thinking ahead, aren't you?"

"We talked about me enough last night. It's your turn."

Ventus sighed, and leaned his head against the cave wall behind him. "I can't say my life's all that exciting."

"You are a goddamn knight. You're supposed to have gone on great adventures, killed some mythical beasts, saved some damsels, or even faced near death. Your life's supposed to be the definition of exciting," Vanitas protested.

"Dragon fighting gets old after a while; especially with only two species running around. And royalty gets kidnapped by rebel groups more than dragons anyway. I don't usually deal with political groups."

"You're trying to make this difficult, aren't you?" Vanitas sighed. "I guess I'll just prompt you then." He brought his hand to his mouth, resting his index finger on his lips. "Why does Roxas carry around two swords?"

"He demonstrated pretty early on that he was absolutely vicious when it came to offense, which is where the nickname Killer came from," Ventus explained while his hands fiddled with each other. "Unfortunately, he's horrible with defensive moves and couldn't fight well if he had a shield on him. Usually failure in the defensive section of initiation means that you have no chance of getting in, but all of the Commanders agreed that his fighting skills were too valuable to give up. They got him to try fighting with two swords, and his attacks were even more effective than before. Many practice dummies were lost that day.

"Luckily for him, one of the Commanders had always found it difficult to use a sword and had taken to using shields both for offense and defense. Axel follows Roxas nearly everywhere, and lets him get away with anything short of murder. They actually steal food from the kitchens together half the time. Xion started tagging along on their thievery adventures a few weeks ago."

"Xion?"

"She joined up a few months ago. She's currently out on her first princess rescue mission, last I heard. Sora, Roxas, Axel, and Riku will do pretty much anything she asks them to. They're the same with Kairi."

"She's that princess who killed a dragon right?"

Ventus nodded. "Sora and Riku went to go kill the dragon and rescue her, but after living with the thing for so long, she'd figured out all of its weaknesses. She waited until the boys had its attention, snuck up behind it, and stabbed it with a sword she'd stolen from the room where it kept dead knights' armour. The Commanders are trying to convince the king and queen of Destiny to let Kairi join up."

"Why did you join up anyway?"

"Sora was sick of living in Departure and wanted to prove that he was a hero. Roxas heard people talking about the Residency and Sora immediately fell in love with the idea. Our parents wouldn't let them go unless I went with them."

"So you didn't always want to be a knight?"

Ventus snorted. "Of course I did. I wasn't going to tell them that though. Especially when they started doing everything I asked them to in the hopes that I'd agree to go."

"How annoyed were they when they learned the truth?"

"They still think they talked me into joining, and I've never really felt the need to burst their bubbles."

"I'm not whether that's kind or cruel of you."

"I'm sure that cruel is much more amusing than kind."

Vanitas laughed. "That it is."

The two sat together in silence, waiting for the other to speak.

"Do you _still _need me to prompt you?"

Ventus let out a nervous laugh. "I don't talk about my life that much. Sora talks enough for all three of us."

"I still don't believe that he and Roxas are the twins," Vanitas said.

"Most people in the Residency think it's a long, ongoing joke. Roxas and I are still mistaken for each other from time to time."

"I'd never been more confused than when I first saw him yesterday."

Ventus laughed. "I should've gone to see what all the fuss was about then. The people who spend more than five minutes a day with us can tell us apart easily. Zexion gets our voices confused sometimes though."

"You were talking Sora's habit of shortening names longer than two syllables earlier, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

Vanitas shrugged. "You mentioning Zexion reminded me of it. Why does he call you Ven? Last time I checked Ventus was two syllables."

"Both he and Roxas had trouble pronouncing words with the letter T in them, so they took to calling me Ven instead and it stuck."

"Does that mean they called themselves 'wins'?"

Ventus shuddered. "Up until they were eight. That word still haunts my nightmares."

Vanitas snorted. "I'm sure." There was another pause in the conversation, and Vanitas brought his finger back to his lips. "You've got some embarrassing stories about your brothers, don't you?"

"Of course I do. What era of embarrassment do you want to start in?"

* * *

><p>Demyx slammed the Record Room door open, and led Roxas inside.<p>

"You _will _be paying for the new door whenever you finally break this one."

"Isn't the Head Record Keeper the one who's supposed to keep the place looking nice?" Demyx retorted.

"I'm pretty sure he has the authority to make you look after it anyway," Roxas told him.

"Roxas?"

"Yes."

"See? I can tell them apart."

"You only guessed that it was Roxas because you know Ventus won't be back 'til Sunday," Demyx protested.

The news of Ventus' tasks received a wide range of responses. Roxas had made no secret of his disbelief, and quite a few people had agreed with him (Zexion being one of them). Axel and Demyx both insisted that they should be more open to the idea. After all, they had no real idea what the dragon in question was capable of.

Demyx gave Roxas directions to the Missing Civilians section, which was even larger than the Missing Royalty section. Roxas' shoulders slumped at the sight of all the searching he'd have to do.

"If you take a file off the shelf, put it back before taking out another one," Zexion yelled from across the room.

"Will do," Roxas replied before he marched over to the "V" files.

He scanned the first few files, and felt his spirits sink when he reached the end of the "Va" files with the name Vanitas nowhere in sight. The idea of having to look through every single file that lined the two long shelves was even more daunting than facing an angry Redbelly dragon.

He stopped when his eyes fell open a file titled "Ventus". He tore it off the shelf, and flipped it open. He scanned through it quickly, taking note of the words Zexion himself had scrawled on the bottom of the page and the string of numbers attached to the word portrait.

"Zexion?"

"Yes?"

"Where are the portraits collected of those missing?"

Zexion came around the corner. "The room at the other end of the hall. Just ask whoever's there to take you to the number you're looking for."

Roxas nodded, closed the file, and began his journey back towards the door.

"Make sure to return that file within twenty four hours," Zexion called after him.

"Got it," Roxas replied.

After successfully finding his way out of the room - he wondered if Zexion's next big organization reformation would include changing the shelf layout - Roxas marched down the hallway. He really wasn't sure what he wanted to see in the portrait he was holding the file for. There were only two possibilities; one meant a dead end while the other meant that Roxas would have an even better reason to worry about his oldest brother.

He slipped through the Portrait Room and was greeted by Pence at the desk.

"Hey, Roxas! Haven't seen you in here before."

Roxas shrugged. "Haven't really had a reason to come here." He opened the file and turned to the note. "Can you show me Painting Two One Three Four Seven?"

Pence jumped out of his chair. "Sure! It's not that far in actually."

Not that far in turned out to be a five minute walk between two rows of paintings. Roxas had never liked paintings of people, and this had lead him to always send up Axel, or whoever else he happened to work with, when they needed to see a portrait.

"Here it is!" Pence announced. He gestured to the painting that hung on the right wall.

It was smaller than most of the portraits that lined the walls, but it was far from the smallest painting in the room. A woman with black hair sat in a plush arm chair with her eyes closed. She held her hand in front of her mouth, almost hiding the smile on her face. A boy with matching black hair sat at her feet with a dragon scale bigger than his head in his hands. His gold irises were glued to it, and an expression of wonder lit up his face.

"Is it what you were looking for?" Pence asked.

Roxas nodded. "Unfortunately, yes."

* * *

><p>Ventus jolted awake when a hand grabbed his arm. Before he could get his bearings, the hand adjusted its grip and a second hand joined it in pushing him off the bed.<p>

"If you're still asleep after that then you're either dead or the heaviest sleeper I've ever met."

"Believe me, I'm awake," Ventus replied from the floor.

"Took you long enough," Vanitas said. He came around to the other side of the bed, and stared down at Ventus. "You're not going to go back to sleep on the floor, are you?"

"I could, if I was feeling spiteful."

"Well, I'm planning on taking you outside today so the less spiteful you are the better."

Ventus sat up. "Why are you suddenly letting me leave?"

Vanitas rolled his eyes. "Optimists. I'm not letting you leave. I'm accompanying you outside." He raised his hand to his mouth. "Although, I suppose it's more like _you _are accompanying _me _outside."

Ventus shook his head. "You've lost me."

Vanitas placed his hands on his hips, and let what might have been the smuggest smile Ventus had ever seen slip onto his face.

"Your task for the day is to survive a trip around around the forest with me."

"You really aren't going to let this 'task' thing go, are you?" Ventus asked. He pushed himself off the floor, and brushed off his legs once he was standing.

"Why would I?" Vanitas turned and left the room. Ventus didn't even wait for a signal to follow him.

"So why do you suddenly want to take me outside?"

"Believe it or not, I am a decent enough to person that I wouldn't keep you inside the cave for the whole week," Vanitas told him as the two made their way across the empty middle room.

"Could've fooled me," Ventus replied.

"Let's leave the insults to my moral code there, shall we?" Vanitas waved his hand in front of the entrance. "I _can _make this little trip a living hell for you."

Vanitas stepped outside the cave with ease, and waited for Ventus to follow. He let out a laugh at the site of Ventus' cautious steps towards where the barrier had been. Ventus exhaled in relief when he made it out of the cave without Vanitas throwing another barrier in his face. The blonde didn't doubt for one second that the dragon boy was perfectly capable, and willing, to do so.

Ventus closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. Sure, there was some air that flowed through the cave, but the barriers hadn't let much fresh air come in and filter out the smell of smoke (or any smell for that matter). Ventus had honestly missed the air outside.

"Alright, on you get."

Ventus opened his eyes and was met with the sight of a dragon snout barely two feet in front of him. He jumped back, and Vanitas laughed.

"You're kidding."

"Did you honestly think we were going for a simple little walk?" Vanitas questioned.

Ventus nodded. "Yes, actually."

"You amaze me sometimes."

Vanitas turned his front foot upside down, and held it out towards Ventus. The knight looked down at the offered foot, and then back up at Vanitas' eyes. The dragon sighed.

"Step on, would you? This shouldn't be too difficult for you."

Ventus repeated his previous actions before taking a tentative step towards the clawed appendage. He gripped two of the claws and pulled himself up onto the underside of Vanitas' foot. The dragon lifted him into the air and tried to set him on his head.

"Grab onto the horns."

Ventus' fingers soon found two grooves in the back of the horns big enough to grasp, and grabbed them. Vanitas lowered his foot back to the ground, and raised his head as he stood at his full height.

"Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Ventus replied, tightening his grip on the black horns.

Vanitas' laughter made him tighten that grip even further.

"Relax a little," Vanitas told him. "I'm not going to try and throw you off."

Ventus groaned. "Now the idea's in your head."

"You and your dragon prejudice."

Ventus lost his train of thought as the wings behind him began to flap. He felt the two of them rise until the cave entrance was a nearly invisible dot below them.

Vanitas gave one more flap of his wings before he shot off over the trees. Ventus screamed and dug his heels into the scales on Vanitas' head. He could barely hear Vanitas' cackling over the deafening wind rushing past them. The dragon slowed to a glide, and began to circle over the trees below.

"Having fun up there?" Vanitas teased.

"What do you think?!" Ventus yelled.

Vanitas laughed again, and lowered them both so that his feet brushed the tops of the trees. Ventus' legs lost their tension as Vanitas slowed down even further.

"I'm sure it's not that bad."

"Have you ever sat on top of a dragon's head while said dragon flew at an inhumane speed?" Ventus asked.

"Can't say I have," Vanitas answered. He flapped his wings again and lifted himself further into the air.

"Well you're not allowed to make fun of me until you do," Ventus announced.

"Oh really?"

Ventus nodded, momentarily forgetting that Vanitas couldn't see him. "Not your cave, not your rules."

Vanitas roared with laughter, and Ventus silently prayed that he wouldn't accidentally set the forest on fire.

The two flew around in relative silence for a while. Vanitas sped up and slowed down at random intervals, and Ventus yelled curses at him as he kept a bruising grip on Vanitas' horns. Vanitas maintained a slow speed as he flew the two of them back towards the mountain.

"Do you think you could leave the Residency every once in a while?" the dragon asked.

Ventus waited a moment before responding. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well, I did agree to let you go in a few days, but I do want to see you afterwards."

"Why?"

Vanitas snorted. "I'm not going to give up on the best entertainment I've had in years just like that."

Ventus rolled his eyes, and couldn't stop a smile from growing on his face. "Of course not. I didn't expect anything less."

"So you'll come back to the mountains?"

"If Roxas ever lets me out of his sight again, sure."

"Shit. I forgot about him."

"You might want to keep those barriers up for a while. If you want to keep your head attached to the rest of you that is," Ventus teased.

"I'd be much less charming without my head, that's for sure."

"Yeah, because charming is exactly the word I'd use to describe you."

"What word would you use then?"

Ventus didn't get a chance to think of a word before Vanitas swore and began to descend on the opposite side of the mountain.

"Your brothers are here," he told Ventus.

They landed in front of a entryway the size of the big doorway in the middle room. Vanitas ducked his head as he walked through. He crouched and lowered his head to the ground. Ventus let go of the horns and slid off of Vanitas' head. The dragon turned back to the entrance and waved one of his front feet in front of it.

"You go on out," he told Ventus. "And I don't think Roxas knows that Sora's with him, so don't mention him."

Ventus nodded and left the room. He ran out to the main entrance and was greeted by an annoyed Roxas.

"Sorry if you were waiting long," Ventus told him, coming to a stop a step behind where the barrier was. Or used to be. "I was doing one of the tasks."

"Whatever." Roxas shoved his hand into the bag hanging at his side. "Where's the fake prince?"

"You called?"

Vanitas walked up to the two blondes, and waved along the way.

"I found some information on you," Roxas told him.

Both Ventus and Vanitas raised an eyebrow.

"I thought there were no files on him," Ventus said.

"There is," Roxas replied and pulled a folder out of his bag. "It's just not under 'Vanitas'."

"What's it under?" Vanitas asked. A scowl had emerged on his face.

"Ventus."

"What?" Ventus asked.

"It's under the name Ventus."

"Holy shit!"

Roxas turned to the bushes behind him. "What are you doing here?"

Sora peeked over the top of the bushes before standing up. "The last time one of my brothers angrily stomped off towards the mountains he got stuck in a cave. I wanted to make sure that we weren't going to turn that into a tradition."

Roxas rolled his eyes, and turned back to the two young men in the cave. He opened the file and cleared his throat.

"Ventus, from the Kingdom of Twilight, was last seen at the age of eight talking to an older man who was later confirmed to be the anarchist and sorcerer Xehanort. His mother described the boy as having black hair, and gold or yellow eyes, and the portrait she provided supports this description. Ventus, along with the twelve other children that Xehanort was responsible for the disappearances of, is presumed to be dead."

The four were silent until Ventus turned to Vanitas.

"Your birth name is Ventus?"

"That's what you're concerned about?" Roxas asked.

"He thought that I'd said 'Vanitas' when he asked for my name," Vanitas explained, ignoring the other blonde knight. "I liked it at the time. Still do."

"Was Xehanort really as crazy as people say he is?" Sora asked as he came to stand next to his twin. "I mean, he _was_ planning on making human-dragon hybrids, but was he even crazier than that?"

"Oh, trust me, the man was insane."

"I don't understand why you two are so calm about this," Roxas told his brothers. "Don't you remember what Xehanort admitted to kidnapping those children for?"

Sora shook his head. "No one actually told me."

Ventus said nothing.

"What did you think he was going to make the human-dragon hybrids out of?" Roxas questioned.

A look of understanding dawned on Sora's face. He turned to look at Vanitas. "So that means -"

"Your brother has one more task to do," Vanitas snapped. "You can come get him in the morning."

"How do we know he'll be alive in the morning?" Roxas asked.

"Because I've had plenty of chances to turn your precious brother here into a pile of ashes, and I didn't take a single one. Hell, I was planning on killing him his second night here, but he managed to talk me out of it." He turned away from the three brothers, walked back into the cave. "_Ven_ will be perfectly fine."

Ventus waited until Vanitas had entered the middle room before turning back to his brothers.

"I'll be here at dawn," Roxas told him. The blonde dropped the file back inside his bag, and turned to leave.

Sora looked back and forth between his two brothers before asking Ventus, "How much did you know?"

"Everything but the birth name," Ventus admitted.

Sora gave him a skeptical look. "And you didn't mention any of it because…?"

Ventus placed his hand against the barrier. "He probably would've put some sort of spell on me to keep me from talking or something. It's not really something he likes to brag about. Unlike almost everything else."

Sora scrunched his eyebrows together, and stared at his older brother. His face began to relax after a few minutes, along with his arms that he'd crossed over his chest. It seemed that all of the tension in his body had disappeared by the time he said "Try not to get eaten tonight, okay?"

Ventus nodded and watched his younger brothers head back down the path. He marched into the middle room once they were out of sight.

"Vanitas? They're gone."

No response.

Ventus sighed and walked over to the den. A quick look inside showed no sign of the dragon who occupied the room.

"You know, babysitting a moody dragon baby was not on my list of things to do today," Ventus muttered.

* * *

><p>The lighting in the cave had dimmed greatly when the sound of flapping wings reached Ventus' ears.<p>

He had sat down next to the den doorway after deducing that Vanitas would probably leave and enter through the entrance in that room. Ventus felt an odd sense of pride when it turned out he was right. He waited until he could hear human footsteps nearby before speaking.

"Took you long enough to come back."

Vanitas' steps resumed when Ventus finished speaking and the knight soon found himself looking up at the boy he'd originally planned to kill.

"Why'd you wait for me?"

"I didn't want to leave tomorrow with my last memory of you being you storming off in a bratty rage."

Vanitas rolled his eyes. "I wasn't being bratty."

"You looked like you were about to have a temper tantrum the likes of which I haven't seen since Sora was five."

"Whatever." Vanitas sat down next to Ventus, tipped his head back, and rested it against the wall behind them.

"Thanks for letting me go early, by the way."

Vanitas made a dismissive noise. "If I tried to keep you the rest of the week they would've brought that sorcerer you guys have with them, and I'd be dead by morning."

"I somehow doubt that Vexen could break through those barriers."

"It wasn't a chance I was willing to take." Vanitas began to fidget with the collar of his cape. "Are you still planning to come back?"

"Yeah. It'll probably take a week for Roxas to not follow me around everywhere I go, but I'll come back up here eventually." He nudged Vanitas' shoulder with his one. "The guilt of letting you die of boredom would eat me alive."

Vanitas' trademark smirk appeared. "It better."

"You've grown surprisingly dependent on my company."

Vanitas nudged Ventus' shoulder in return. "It's your fault for being so amusing."

"Glad I could be of service." Ventus stood up. "Wake me up when Roxas gets here."

"Nah, I think I'll let you sleep through your knight in shining armour coming to rescue you."

"If I'm going to be a damsel in distress then I might as well do it right and be awake enough to fall into my hero's arms."

Ventus walked over to the small entryway, but stopped walking when Vanitas spoke.

"I never really liked the name Ventus."

"A pity you got stuck with me then."

* * *

><p>"Come on, Sleeping Beauty; your prince awaits."<p>

Ventus slowly opened his eyes. "I'm surprised you even know about Aurora."

Vanitas snorted. "Where do you think Xehanort got the idea? Maleficent was a crazy bitch, and her influence spread even wider after her death."

Ventus hummed, and swung his legs off the bed. "I'm gonna miss this thing," he said, patting it.

"Of all the things you could miss, I didn't expect my bed to be one of them."

"It actually has a mattress," Ventus explained as he stood up. "The ones in the Residency feel like giant sheets of parchment spread out over wood."

"Now wonder your brother's always cranky," Vanitas replied.

Ventus led the way out to the middle room for the first time. Vanitas seemed reluctant to follow. Ventus turned back to face him.

"Well, I suppose I should thank you for not killing me."

"It wasn't that hard, believe it or not," Vanitas scoffed.

Ventus surprised them both by hugging the boy in front of him.

"I'll be back to amuse you eventually."

Ventus let go of Vanitas, turned away, and ran off towards his brother.

* * *

><p>As expected, Roxas shadowed him for nearly a week. If his youngest brother wasn't right next to him, then Ventus could spot the familiar head of blonde hair ducking behind a corner. He actually didn't mind it as much as he thought he would.<p>

Two days after his return, Xion arrived on horseback with Princess Namine clinging to her. The princess' parents had asked the Residency to give her lodgings until they could reach Destiny Kingdom. Kings and queens would often ask the Residency to do such a thing, so there was already a room prepared for Namine when she got there.

There'd been a large celebration upon their return. Xion was congratulated every time she entered a room, and she soon grew embarrassed by it. Namine only giggled and told Xion she deserved the praise.

The two were nearly inseparable, Ventus noticed. He'd often spot them walking through the Residency, hand in hand, and almost always talking. Even when he saw one without the other, he often saw them together again not too long afterwards.

Namine seemed to spend a lot of time in the Portrait Room. Ventus had thought about joining her on her daily trips, but after remembering that there was a portrait of Vanitas in there he decided that avoiding that room would get him more of his privacy back much quicker.

Ventus had discovered that he'd forgotten his sword almost immediately upon arriving at the Residency, and Roxas had told him to ask Terra to forge him a new one. Ventus, not wanting to give his friend any extra work, had protested, so Roxas had taken it upon himself to ask instead.

Terra and Aqua had both been waiting for him at the blacksmith's shop, and had demanded to hear everything. Ventus, in the interest of not lying more than he had to, had even gone so far as to explain Vanitas' connection to Xehanort. They both seemed to feel the same way Roxas did.

"As you can see, he didn't actually kill me."

"He still threatened to," Terra had argued.

"Nothing good comes from trying to befriend a dragon, Ven," Aqua had told him.

Ventus promised to keep the dragon out of his thoughts, and changed the conversation to a happier topic. He hadn't wanted to fight with his best friends after being separated from them for a few days.

Six days after his return, Axel had managed to speak to him alone.

The redhead had convinced his fighting partner to go take a bath before he "became close cousins to a skunk", and that he'd play guard dog while Roxas did so.

"Tell me about Vanitas," he said mere seconds after Roxas had closed the door to one of the bathing rooms. "I can't get any good answers out of that one."

Ventus told Axel everything from their first conversation up to the last morning he'd been there. There were some parts that he didn't really know how to explain since he hadn't given anyone the full story before, but he knew that Axel wouldn't overreact or spread any information that didn't need to be spread so he didn't see any harm in spilling everything to the older man.

Axel donned a thoughtful look as he listened to the story, and didn't say a word until long after Ventus had finished speaking.

"Sounds like you're fond of the guy."

Ventus shrugged. "I guess. All I know for sure is that I ended up enjoying myself somehow."

"Hm."

The two of them stood across from each other, each leaning on the wall behind them. Axel looked down at his shoes, and Ventus watched the man think.

"I've got an idea."

"Oh?"

Axel immediately launched into an explanation of his rather bizarre plan. Ventus voiced his doubts the whole way through, but Axel reassured him that it actually had a good chance of working every time he did.

Ventus sighed. "What do I have to do then?"

"Sneak out after Roxas nods off, go talk to Dragon Boy, and bring him back here. Got it memorized?"

Ventus nodded. "Here's hoping it's as easy as you think it'll be."

* * *

><p>Sneaking out of the Residency in the middle of the night had been much easier than Ventus had thought it would be. Once Roxas and the other boys they shared a room with had drifted off, all Ventus had had to do was avoid the creaky floorboards and slip out the door. He snuck past the sparsely placed night guards without any trouble, and left through the main door. He decided that he'd talk with some of the Commanders about the subpar security once he got back.<p>

Making his way up the mountain in the dark turned out to be even more difficult than he thought it would have. He'd thankfully traversed the path enough to have a vague idea of where he was going, but he'd tripped and fallen over more times than he was willing to admit as he made the journey.

He sighed in relief when the familiar cave mouth came into view. He leaned against the entrance, and knocked on the wall.

"You in there?"

"You're lucky I recognized your scent because you'd be dead otherwise," he heard Vanitas yell from inside the cave.

Ventus smiled and strolled into the cave. He walked into the middle room to find Vanitas waiting in the middle of it, tossing Ventus' sword from one hand to the other.

"I'm assuming you came back for this?"

"Yes and no." Ventus went over and took the sword from Vanitas' hands. He clipped it back onto his belt without looking away from Vanitas, who raised an eyebrow.

"What else are you here for?"

"Believe it or not, the Residency would consider murder in order to have a dragon working for them."

Vanitas soon looked even more confused than before. "Which means…?"

"Which means that, if you want to, you could join up."

Vanitas cackled. Ventus wasn't sure whether he had missed it or not. "Bullshit."

"According to Axel -"

"Shield guy?"

Ventus nodded. "Saix, the guy who's not exactly on charge but might as well be, has been obsessing over having more advantages should we ever have to go to war ever since Roxas joined up. The other Commanders seem to be thinking along the same lines. They were apparently a conflicted group when it came down to whether an intelligent dragon was a good thing or not."

"Well that's all fine and dandy," Vanitas replied, "but how the fuck do you plan to bring that up in a conversation? I don't think there's any way that you can casually start talking about what an advantage I would be on a battlefield."

"I wasn't thinking of bringing it up casually," Ventus admitted.

"So what are you thinking of doing then? Brandishing your sword while riding on top of my head as I swoop down and give everyone in a fifty mile radius a heart attack?"

* * *

><p>"Ready?"<p>

Ventus drew his sword out of its sheath while he tried to keep a tight grip on one of Vanitas' horns.

"As I'll ever be."

"So not at all then?"

"Just do your majestic swoop."

Vanitas snickered before he launched himself off the mountain and up over The Kingdom of Destiny. When the Residency came into view beneath them, Vanitas hovered in the air for a seconds before dropping nose first. Ventus screamed, and tightened his hold on the horn by wrapping both his legs and his free arm around it.

"You're ruining the appeal by screaming, you know!" Vanitas yelled over the wind.

"Like I said before, you try being in this position and see how you like it!"

Vanitas laughed, lifted his head, and straightened out his body so that their descent slowed. He landed as softly as he could in front of the Residency, where many soldiers had already gathered.

"You okay up there?" he asked Ventus.

The blonde knight put his sword back into its sheath, and loosened his grip on the horn he'd been clinging to. "Just peachy."

Vanitas lowered himself until his chin touched the ground, causing many of the people who'd been standing in that area to back away. Ventus slid off of his head and onto the ground. He resisted the urge to fall to the ground and kiss it, seeing as he'd embarrassed himself enough that day.

Ventus turned to watch Vanitas shift back into human form, realizing that he'd never actually seen it before. The dragon's bones seemed to collapse in on themselves and steam rose from the scales. Once it was clear enough to see again, Vanitas was bent over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath, in, thankfully, normal looking clothes.

"Is this the hybrid we've been told about?"

Ventus turned around and came face to face with Commander Saix. The man was staring coldly at Vanitas, but Ventus didn't think of it as a cause for concern since Saix looked at everyone that way.

"Yes, sir! I've heard the other Commanders discussing what a strong military advantage he would be, and decided to speak with him about it in the hopes that he'd be interested."

"Is he?"

Ventus nodded. "Very much so, sir."

Xigbar came up behind Saix and joined his fellow Commander in trying to scrutinize Vanitas by simply looking at him. The boy in question didn't seem to be sure of what he was supposed to do, and settled for giving the two a half hearted glare. Xigbar chuckled at the sight.

"C'mon, kiddo," Xigbar called. "We've got shit to discuss."

Vanitas scowled for a split second before he seemed to realize that probably hadn't been the best thing to do. He settled on a mild look of annoyance and followed the older man into the building. Saix and the other Commanders followed soon after.

Ventus felt someone grip his shoulder, and he wasn't surprised to learn that it was Roxas.

"Have you lost your mind?"

Ventus shrugged. "Probably."

Roxas shook his head before leaving Ventus to talk with Sora about what it was like to fly on a dragon.

* * *

><p>Ventus had promised his parents a lot of things. Falling in love with a guy who turned out to be a dragon and who had planned to keep him locked up in a cave for a week had not been one of them, but he supposed that could be included in the promise he'd made that he'd be as happy as he could be.<p>

According to both Vanitas and Axel, there hadn't been any argument as to whether or not Vanitas was going to join up. The real argument had been over who they would pair him up with.

They may have been planning to release a dragon onto a battlefield, but they weren't so uncivilized that they were planning to set him loose on his own.

Xigbar and Larxene had suggested themselves, but they were both quickly denied. Aqua had refused when it was suggested that she do it, claiming that she didn't feel as if she would be properly equipped to handle such a task. Axel had eventually reminded them all that Ventus had been the one to ride Vanitas there in the first place, which started the argument over whether or not Ventus had the skills needed.

Vanitas had been growing increasingly irritated the whole time, and had eventually told the room that at that point it was Ventus or nothing (Ventus had only learned of this part of the meeting from Axel weeks later). Saix, who'd also grown tired of the senseless arguing, had agreed. In the end, all that really mattered to Ventus was that he now had a dragon as a fighting partner.

If only his ten year old self could see him now.

He felt Vanitas' gaze on him as he talked with Xion, which, admittedly, wasn't that long of a conversation. The girl said goodbye and ran off when the mail call sounded from the main building. She'd probably been waiting for a letter from Namine as the princess had agreed to write to her before she'd gone back to her own kingdom.

"I know you're there," Ventus announced.

"I wasn't exactly trying to hide," Vanitas told him after coming out from behind the shed of practice weapons.

"Could've fooled me."

Vanitas rolled his eyes, and walked over to stand next to Ventus. "I was only trying to get your attention."

"And why would you want that?"

"If you can't keep me entertained, I may have to go on an angry dragon rampage, and I doubt anyone wants that."

"Xigbar would probably get a kick out of it."

"Yes, because I live to amuse him."

"According to him, everyone does. Wonder who that reminds me of."

Vanitas shook his head. "Not _everyone _lives to amuse me. Just you."

"Well, don't I feel special?" Ventus began walking towards the dining hall entrance. Mail call always occurred just before supper was brought out.

"And so you should," Vanitas replied. He easily fell in step with the blonde beside him. "I don't like just anyone."

"I didn't know liking was involved," Ventus said, stopping in front of the door.

Vanitas laughed. "Of course it is, idiot. I have to like you at least somewhat in order to find you amusing."

"But don't you also find Roxas amusing?"

"On occasion. And it's a different kind of amusing."

Vanitas opened the door, and stepped inside. Ventus followed him inside and tried to piece together when his feelings towards the boy in front of him had become romantic.

* * *

><p><strong>I wrote this just short of two weeks ago and I just spent about two hours trying to get it to work for this website's formatlayout. **

**And one little technical thing that I don't think I mentioned: Destiny is right in the middle of the continent so that's why the Residency is there. **


End file.
